It is common for large enterprises, such as banks or other financial institutions, to communicate with their customers, or potential customers, for a variety of reasons. For example, a customer of a bank may have various accounts with the bank. This may include a personal loan, an auto loan, one or more credit cards, a debit card, a boat loan, a mortgage on their primary home, a mortgage on a vacation home, etc. In addition, the customer may have checking accounts, saving accounts, investment accounts, etc. Thus, it can be expected that at one time or another, the bank will have to communicate with the customer separately for each of these accounts.
These communications can take various forms/channels. For instance, one common form/channel that is frequently used is a letter that may include periodic statements, notifications, etc. Another common form/channel that is frequently used in other circumstances is a telephone call. Accordingly, the customer may have a home, work, and/or cellular telephone number and the bank may maintain these numbers in their files. In other instances, the bank may use other forms/channels of communication such as emails, short message service (“SMS”) texts, and faxes that may require the bank to maintain additional information in their files. Thus, it becomes evident that an enterprise may originate a number of communications with an individual, using a variety of forms/channels of communication (e.g., voice, letter, email, text, etc.) and for a variety of purposes (e.g., based on the nature and status of an account).
Typically, each account type handled by an enterprise for a customer can represent the operation of a separate, and often independently managed group within the enterprise. For example, a group originating mortgages in a bank may be organizationally separate from a group handling checking/savings accounts in the bank. Even within the area of loans, personal loans may be handled by a separate group from a group handling home loans, student loans, etc. Although these separate groups (e.g., departments/organizations) may be under the umbrella of a common enterprise, each group may maintain their own communication system for originating communications to the account holders, operating as a stand-alone system and designed to perform the requisite communications for that particular group independent from those communications originating from other groups. These separate groups and communication systems are sometimes referred to as “silos” since they represent their own, stand-alone departments/organizations, processes, and communication and information processing technologies. Thus, each independent group (e.g., department/organization) under the umbrella of a common enterprise may conduct their own operations and communications with account holders in a logically and practically separate manner. Further, each group may have different policies and regulations governing how they communicate with account holders, and this in turn may be reflected in different processing architectures.
However, from an account holder's perspective, all the account holder's separate accounts are associated with a common enterprise and as a result, the account holder may presume the common enterprise “knows” all the information associated with the account holder's separate accounts. Thus, the account holder may presume that when he or she receives a communication from the common enterprise in regards to one of the account holder's accounts, the enterprise is fully coordinated and cognizant with respect to all of the account holder's other accounts with the enterprise. That is to say, the account holder may not recognize that his or her separate accounts are handled by different groups under the umbrella of the common enterprise and therefore, are not necessarily coordinated with one another. However, this is frequently the case, particularly with large institutions, and in fact, various organizations may operate as separate legal entities under a common holding company in order to give the account holder the impression that he or she is dealing with one enterprise.
A challenge commonly faced by an enterprise comprising separate groups (e.g., departments/organizations) in communicating with account holders is that the communications are typically not coordinated in any manner. Therefore, an enterprise under these circumstances does not readily know which groups have communicated with an account holder on any given day, week, or other time period, particularly if the communication(s) involve separate accounts. Obviously, the account holder does readily know the specifics of how and when the enterprise communicated with him or her.
Since an enterprise comprising separate groups normally attempts to portray itself as a coordinated and cognizant institution for the account holder to deal with, there is often a ‘disconnect’ between the account holder's perceptions and expectations of the enterprise. For example, the account holder may have various accounts with the enterprise and may inform an employee in the home mortgages department that a cellular telephone number associated with a mortgage account has been replaced with another number. However, since the enterprise may not communicate with the account holder in a coordinated manner, it is quite possible that another department, such as the credit card department, may attempt to contact that account holder using the obsolete telephone number. Here, the account holder may expect the enterprise to act in a coordinated manner and have each department recognize the new number. However, that may not be the case in actuality and the enterprise may find it difficult to coordinate operations among the various departmental “silos” that should be using the new number.
Thus, enterprises comprising separate groups (e.g., departments/organizations) have a need to better coordinate and manage their communication attempts (“CAs”) with account holders. There are several reasons why. First of all, the account holder expects this to occur. Second of all, proper coordination and management of CAs is less likely to result in errors or mistakes during communications between the enterprise and the account holder. Third of all, the enterprise is likely to provide better customer service by communicating in a coordinated manner and accordingly, affecting market share positively. Finally, regulations are being defined, or are defined, that mandate an enterprise to coordinate and manage their CAs with account holders.
For instance, some of these regulations are initially targeted at CAs related to collecting debts or otherwise servicing debt-related accounts. In these particular applications, the account holder is sometimes referred to as a “debtor” reflecting this situation. For example, regulations are emerging on how CAs may be directed to a debtor for purposes of servicing or collecting a debt for an account. While many of these regulations may facially exclude governing communications pertaining to certain types of accounts such as, for example, a savings account, (since such communications are not concerned with a debt) these regulations do govern communications pertaining to credit card accounts, student loan accounts, mortgage accounts, personal loan accounts, and other debt-oriented accounts. Thus, many of these regulations provide enterprises comprising separate groups with ample reasons to better coordinate and manage their CAs.
Furthermore, many enterprises may find it desirable from a customer service perspective to coordinate and manage CAs across all types of accounts, regardless of whether the communications pertain to debts. For example, if a customer indicates a desire to avoid receiving telephone calls in the morning because he or she works a night shift, an enterprise may find it desirable to coordinate and manage all telephone calls placed to this customer regardless of the reason for the calls and which groups in the enterprise are placing the calls.
However, with that said, coordinating and managing CAs to targeted individuals can be difficult. Many communication management systems (“CMS”), i.e., the systems that generate actual communications for particular channels, are designed to operate in a stand-alone manner. For instance, an enterprise sending checking account statements to account holders may use a printing/mailing system that is completely separate from that used to send mortgage statements. In addition, not all communication management systems have the same technical capabilities. For example, such systems are designed without appropriate interfaces to check whether a CA would exceed a threshold, and are not designed to be configured to make such checks before originating a CA. Thus, retrofitting such systems is not merely modifying the software, but may require a fundamental redesign of their operation and require additional hardware.
Furthermore, individuals administrating these systems are often in separate groups, and these separate groups may be governed by different policies and regulations as to how and when communications may occur. As a result, devising an approach to coordinate and manage CAs among these disparate and distinct communication management systems, as well as devising an approach to accommodate the different technical capabilities of systems and policies and regulations governing groups, has proven difficult and challenging.
Thus, a need in the art exists for facilitating the coordination and management of CAs directed to individuals using different forms/channels of communication and/or different communication management systems. Furthermore, a need in the art exists to enable the coordination and management of CAs among disparate and distinct communication systems, while also accommodating the different capacities of these systems and policies and regulations governing groups using these systems. Furthermore, there is a need for such systems to be flexible, to allow variations in different CA profiles with respect to how, when, and the frequency an account may be contacted. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented.